Mauritanian-born Malian director Abderrahmane Sissako is a filmmaker-poet. His work is a form of free verse, in which the voices of people often talked over and overlooked can be heard clearly. In situations of political and social struggle, the focus of his cinematic tales remains on dignity and courage and his carefully crafted fictions and documentaries make him one of Africa’s most respected filmmakers. "Black Tea," his latest feature, takes these formal and narrative principles into new territory. A contender for a Golden Bear this year, the film tells the story of Aya, a thirty-something woman who leaves her native Ivory Coast for China, where love leads her to confront social prejudices and her own past. In his long-awaited visit to Berlinale Talents, this conversation with Abderrahmane Sissako is an invitation to explore the polyphony at the heart of his cinema and what these many voices say about his perspective on our globalised world.